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old. William le Latimer then applied for and obtained a divorce. In consequence of this, the King's Escheator took the manors of Yarm, Brunne, Skinningrove, and Brotton, part of Lucia's inheritance, into the King's hands (Inq. p. m. 5 Edward II, No. 10).

After the pronunciation of the divorce in the Consistory Court of York, Lucia, with the intention of preventing her estates descending to the children born to her whilst she was living with Latimer, conveyed all her lands to the Rector of Rudby, in trust for her issue by Menyll. Latimer, who appears to have been afraid that Menyll would attempt to deprive him of the property which had come to him through Lucia, then applied to the King for a letter under the Privy Seal ordering all persons to assist him in recovering the wife he had just divorced. But the influence of the Thweng, Mauley, and Menyll families was so strong that after enrolling the King's order in the Assize Roll, nothing further was done in the matter.

Latimer then concocted a scheme which was probably characteristic of the man. He bribed a broken-down soldier, one Robert de Bordesdeyne, to swear that he had been hired by Menyll to murder him-Latimer. He threatened Bordesdeyne that if he would not enter into the plot he had sufficient influence with the King to have him imprisoned for life in the Tower of London, and promised him 50 marcs and all out-ofpocket expenses for carrying out the plot, and that he would see that he came to no ill consequences. Bordesdeyne then bribed one Robert son of Philip the blacksmith, of Scampston, and Thomas of Roston, to swear in court that they had been engaged by him to murder Latimer. Bordesdeyne, on being examined by the Justices, confirmed everything these two men had said, and swore that he himself had been engaged by Menyll.

Now, Menyll was notoriously violent, and only a short time previously had caused the murder of a whole family at Easby, near Stokesley, consequently the Justices took a serious view of the case, and calling upon Latimer, asked him if he wished to proceed against Menyll as the principal criminal. On his answering in the affirmative, they bound him over with two sureties to prosecute at the next assizes.

They then threw Bordesdeyne and his two accomplices into York Castle to await trial. But this imprisonment greatly annoyed Bordesdeyne, for Latimer had promised him that he should come to no hurt, and at the next assizes he made a full

confession of the plot, and the Justices declared Menyll guiltless (Cart. Prior. de Gyseburne, No. 227a).

In 1307, Lucia bore Menyll an illegitimate son, Nicholas, who eventually succeeded to the barony and estates, and being summoned to Parliament 9, 10, 12, 13, and 14 Edward III, died 16 Edward III, at the age of 36 years. By his wife Alicia, daughter of William, Lord de Roos of Helmsley, he had issue an only daughter and heiress, Elizabeth, who married, first, Sir John D'Arcy de Knayth; and, secondly, Peter, sixth Baron de Mauley of Mulgrave, eldest son and heir of the Peter already mentioned as one of the lovers of Lucia.

In 1313, at the age of 34, Lucia married her second husband, Sir Robert de Everingham, a younger brother of Sir Adam Fitz-Robert de Everingham. But three years later Sir Robert was killed in the Scottish wars, and interred in the north aisle of the chancel of Guisborough Priory. By an inquisition, dated the Tuesday after the feast of St. John ante Portam Latinam, 9 Edward II (May 11th, 1316), it was found that Lucia and her late husband had been enfeoffed of the manors of Brotton and Kirkburn, of ten marcs rent in Skinningrove, and of half the Bailiwick of Langbargh, in special tail, with remainder to Robert's heirs, and of the manor of Yarm, with remainder to Nicholas de Menyll, her illegitimate son (Inq. p. m. 9 Edward II, No. 50).

Lucia married again, at the age of 41, in 1320, Sir Bartholomew de Fanacourt, a foreigner, who had been page to her first husband, Sir William le Latimer. He bore the arms, Sable, une crois patey d'argent, une border d'or recercele (Roll of Arms of the time of Edward III, published by Sir Harris Nicolas in 1829, p. 5). Fanacourt fought against the royalist forces at the battle of Boroughbridge, 1322, where he was captured (Parliamentary Writs, i, app. 197); but, largely owing to the influence of the Lords Mauley and Thweng, was subsequently pardoned and released. Curiously enough, the commander of the royalist forces at this battle was Latimer, Lucia's first husband. By an inquisition dated Thursday before Easter, 13 Edward III (March 25th, 1339), it was found that it would not be to the King's loss if he allowed the whole of the property which had come to the Thwengs by the Brus partition of 1271, with the exception of the lordship of Danby, amounting altogether to eight knights' fees and half the advowson of the Priory of Guisborough (all held in capite), to be settled on de

Fanacourt and Lucia for their lives, with remainder to his heirs (Add. MSS. 26720, fo. 184b).

William, Lord Latimer, Lucia's first husband, died in 1328, and his son William, born in 1294, instituted a somewhat belated inquiry into the question of his legitimacy, and on July 1st, 1326, the following very convenient finding was arrived at, viz.:-" William, the reputed son of Sir William le Latimer, was not illegitimate, but was the son of Latimer and Lucia de Thweng" (Fasti Ebor., i, 377m). Unfortunately, the fact that his grandfather, only a few weeks after his birth, had received the grant of the lordship of Danby for life on account of his illegitimacy, and that for some thirty-four years this illegitimacy had never been disputed, goes far to disprove the accuracy of this "finding."

Lucia, who had been the means of introducing the bar sinister into two great baronial houses, died at her manor house at Brotton on the 8th January, 1346, at the age of 67. The funeral ceremony took place in the chapel of St. Peter, at Kilton Castle, in which she had been baptised and married, and her body was then conveyed to Guisborough Priory and interred alongside that of her late husband, Sir Robert de Everingham. From the Inq. p. m. dated the second week in Lent, 20 Edward III (1346), it appears that Adam Fitz-Adam de Everingham, of Laxton, was the nephew and heir of her late husband, and that he was then 30 years of age and upwards. William Fitz-William le Latimer, her grandson, then a boy of sixteen, was her nearest blood-relation, but Lucia had expressly stated that no inheritance should descend from her to him. By her will, dated early in 1346, she appointed her husband, Sir Bartholomew de Fanacourt, her sole executor and residuary legatee (Test. Ebor., i, 32). Fanacourt died on Tuesday of the second week in Lent (March 6th), 1352. At his Inq. p. m. the jurors certified ignorance as to his heirs, as he was a Frenchman (Inq. p. m. 26 Edward III, Second Nos., No. 44).

MARMADUKE, the first Parliamentary Baron de Thweng of Kilton Castle, was second son of Marmaduke, feudal baron of Danby, by his wife, Lucia de Brus, and was born at Kilton Castle in 1256. He married, in 1273, at the age of 17, Isabella, daughter of Sir Robert de Roos, of Ingmanthorpe, Knt., and on his brother's death, six years later, took up his residence at Kilton Castle. By the arrangement already referred to, he

inherited the whole of the ancestral estates of the Thwengs on the death of his father in December, 1279. By his wife Isabel he had issue:

Marmaduke, born 1274.

William, born 1276.

Robert, born 1277.

Lucia, born 1279, who married, in 1298, Sir Robert de Lumley,
Knt., of Lumley.

Margaret, born 1281, who married, in 1301, Sir Robert de

Hilton, Knt.

Thomas, born 1283.

John, born 1284.

Catherine, born 1285, who married, in 1303, Sir Ralph
D'Aubenie, Knt.

Nicholas, born 1286.

His eldest son, Marmaduke, was probably the actual father of Lucia de Thweng's eldest son, William, afterwards Baron Latimer of Danby.

Marmaduke took a prominent part in the Scottish wars of the period. He was present at Newcastle when Baliol did homage to King Edward I for the Crown (1292), and took part in the capture of Berwick (March 30th, 1296).

At the disastrous battle of Stirling, September 11th, 1297, Marmaduke appears to have been the only baron in authority on the English side to keep his head. Sir William Wallace, the Scottish commander, had taken up a strong position on the north side of the River Forth, not far from the famous castle of Stirling, then one of the three chief fortresses in Scotland. John de Warenne, Earl of Surrey, Governor of Scotland, and Cressingham, the Treasurer, with a well-appointed army, approached the river on the opposite side, a long and narrow old timber bridge then crossing the river at this point.

Cressingham urged an immediate attack, and insisted on the English crossing this bridge. Others, including Marmaduke, then a man 40 years of age, with considerable military experience, pointed out that were this done Wallace could defeat them in detail. Unfortunately, Cressingham's advice prevailed, and what Marmaduke had foreseen then came to pass. Wallace waited until the headstrong Cressingham with about half the English army had crossed the bridge, attacked them in full force, and totally defeated them, slaying a large number and driving the remainder into the river where they were drowned.

No quarter was given, for Wallace, contrary to popular opinion, was both a brutal and treacherous man. Cressingham was killed and his body horribly mutilated. The other half of the English army, dismayed at the fate which had befallen their comrades, broke and fled in confusion. Had Wallace been able to cross the bridge, the remainder of the English army would have been cut to pieces.

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Marmaduke, who up to that time had taken no part in the battle, at once realised the danger. Gathering his personal retainers together, he rushed for the bridge, cutting his way through the Scots who had already crossed. "Strenuissimus ille miles," Walter de Hemingburgh terms him in his interesting contemporary account of the battle (vol. ii, p. 138). In the desperate combat which ensued, Marmaduke's nephew, one of the famous de Roos family, was unhorsed and very severely wounded, but staggering to his feet, he called out, "Master, save me." Marmaduke, a man of enormous height and tremendous strength, "fortis robere et staturae procerae," turned round, slew the Scots who were attempting to kill the youth, and called out, Get up behind me, boy." His nephew made an effort to do so, but failed. "I cannot, my Lord," he replied, "for my strength fails me." At that moment Marmaduke's squire, probably one of the de Mauley family of Mulgrave, rode up, and while the baron kept the enemy at bay, dismounted and lifted the youth into the saddle. Finally, the little band reached the bridge, and whilst Marmaduke and his more heavilyarmed retainers held it against the advancing Scots, the others succeeded in setting fire to it, thus effectually preventing Wallace crossing the river. But the Scots who had already crossed outnumbered Marmaduke's force, and another fight took place. Finally, the baron defeated these, and no quarter being given, killed the whole of them.

In this battle Marmaduke lost his eldest son and heir, Marmaduke, a youth of 22, and his nephew Marmaduke, a youth of about the same age, an illegitimate son of Sir Robert de Thweng.

As a reward for his bravery, the Earl of Warenne entrusted Marmaduke with the command of the important castle of Stirling, which, however, was only provisioned for six weeks, promising him that if he could manage to hold out for ten weeks he would return with a strong army and relieve him. But the whole of Scotland was now in arms, and not only were

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